Wild owner Leipold: Now's the time for change

On Monday, Doug Risebrough stood at a podium to announce the resignation of longtime coach Jacques Lemaire and outline his plans for the Wild's future.

The major newspapers and wire service were there, and all the local television stations — a couple of dozen reporters in all. The Wild even broadcast the event live. And while all this was going on, the team's owner knew he was about to fire Risebrough, the only GM the franchise has ever known.

"I came to my decision," Craig Leipold said Thursday, "about a month ago."

So much for all those plans. Now the Wild not only need a head coach, they need a general manager to hire him.

Lemaire said the decision was "a huge surprise."

"If it's a bad move, I don't know. Everything was fine, and then you got the owner that feels that it's not fine. That's the way it is," Lemaire said.

Leipold, who bought controlling interest in the Wild a little more than a year ago, made it a clean break, informing Risebrough on Tuesday that his contract would not be renewed. The team announced the move Thursday.

"It was a very agonizing decision," Leipold said. "I have the hugest respect for Doug, both professionally and personally, and the decision was made over a long period of time. There was no big smoking-gun event. I'm not interested in going over what the issues are."

Because Leipold would not discuss those issues and Risebrough couldn't be reached for comment, one can only speculate.

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By most standards, the Wild are a successful expansion franchise, and though Lemaire was the architect of a style that kept the team competitive , it was Risebrough who hired him — and virtually the rest of the team's hockey operations.

In eight seasons starting in 2000-01, the Wild have made three playoff appearances, advancing to the Western Conference finals in 2002-03. By comparison, Columbus, which entered the league with Minnesota, made the playoffs for the first time this season. Last season, the Wild put out a banner in the rafters by winning the Northwest Division.

That Minnesota did not successfully defend that title, and failed to make the postseason for the first time in three seasons, played a large part in Leipold's decision to cut ties with the past. But, he said, even a playoff berth wouldn't have changed his mind.

The decision to let Risebrough go, he said, "Was pretty close to irrevocable. If we had gone deep into playoffs, yes, it could have been changed."

Not every Risebrough decision worked. Early drafts were generally successful, producing players such as Marian Gaborik, Nick Schultz, Brent Burns and Mikko Koivu. But the 2004 and 2005 first-rounders, A.J.

Thelan and Benoit Pouliot, have been busts, and the jury is still out on 2006 top pick James Sheppard.

Of the development of recent picks, Leipold said, "There's been a little disappointment there."

In addition, Risebrough has traded away a lot of lower-round picks that haven't been replaced, and has let big-time free agents Brian Rolston, Pavol Demitra and now possibly Gaborik walk without getting assets in return, making it difficult for scouts to restock.

Though the team averaged an overflow sellout crowd of 18,568 this season, the Wild's performance at times inspired booing, and the most vocal fans — in Internet chat rooms — had grown disenchanted.

"We don't run the franchise based on fan trending," Leipold said.

"We care about our fans, clearly, and our season-ticket base, and we listen to what they're saying. But really the fans had no impact on this decision."

Instead, Leipold said, it was a "gut feeling" that guided him.

"It would sound almost too self-serving to say that I'm trying to build this franchise into the direction I want it to go," he said. "That's not what I'm trying to accomplish here. What I want is to take this franchise to the next level, and frankly I'm not the person to do that.

"I just saw some things, and my gut says, 'Now's the time for change,' and I need to go out and get the best person to lead this great franchise, and team, and get it to the next level. That was the reason for the decision.

"I'll hire the best person who is available at this time, and then we'll be talking about what their strategies and priorities are."

If the timing seems strange, Leipold said, it's because the Wild were fighting for a playoff spot through the penultimate game of their season.

"I waited a month because we were in the heat of a Stanley Cup playoff race, and I fully anticipated us being in the playoffs," he said. "I didn't want to disrupt anything."